The Amazing Race Philippines: Redemption (DryedMangoez Edition 12) – Leg 1 – Malaysia


IntroductionLeg 1Leg 2Leg 3Leg 4Leg 5Leg 6Leg 7Leg 8ALeg 8BLeg 9Leg 10Leg 11Leg 12


Leg 1 – “I might die in your arms tonight.”

Twelve Amazing Race Philippines DryedMangoez Edition teams are back and ready for their 2nd chance (or 3rd, if they’ve appeared on All-Stars ;)). Wrong turns, bad taxis, big mistakes, U-Turns and Yields… any eliminated, non-winning team feels like they have unfinished business on the Race. And for these twelve teams, they’ll get their shot at… *insert dramatic music* REDEMPTION!

Teams are gathered at the Starting Line in the beautiful, newly reopened Ayala Triangle Gardens North in Makati. And it is here where they will be told that for the first time ever on The Amazing Race Philippines, there will be NO Express Passes. NO Yields. No Fast Forwards. No Rewinds. AND! No U-Turns!!!

This time, teams will need to rely on their own skills and strengths to get ahead of other teams in order to reach the redemption they are seeking.

To get this Race started, teams must make their way on foot to Greenbelt 5 where both team members must use a mechanical ascender to pull themselves up the side of the building to the rooftop garden.

On the rooftop, teams will find an Intersection! Teams will need to pair up to complete this next challenge.

For this Intersection, teams will need to figure out their first destination city. They will be given a ball of string, thumbtacks and a list of eight different international cities. With each international city is a distance:

Manila: 2,469km
Sapporo, Japan: 5,912km
Astana, Kazakhstan: 6,032km
Amman, Jordan: 7,541km
Libreville, Gabon: 10,245km
Cape Town, South Africa: 9,577km
Hobart, Australia: 6,855km
San Francisco, USA: 13,582km

These are the distances between the provided cities and their first destination. Teams will tack one end of string on each provided city on a large globe and figure out to what city the distances are referring to. Teams will be given a brand new Samsung Galaxy S8 Edge to allow them to use its ruler to measure and convert the distances using the string. Teams will have to tack the ends of each string to that one city: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The first three Intersected teams to have figured out their first destination AND placed all thumbtacks and strings on the correct locations, will receive tickets on the first direct flight from Manila to Kuala Lumpur on Cebu Pacific arriving at 5:50pm. The last three teams to complete the task will fly on Malaysian Airlines arriving at 6:50pm.

Teams ARE NOT allowed to help other teams they are not Intersected with.

Once in Kuala Lumpur, teams must make their way to the Jalan Alor night market. And here, teams will find their first Detour: Durian Delivery or Sultry Snacks.

In Durian Delivery, teams must deliver 15 bundles of durian to different marked stalls in the market. Once they have delivered all bundles and enjoyed a serving of the fresh fruit, they will receive their next clue.

In Sultry Snacks, teams must learn how to make five different popular street foods at the market. Once they have properly prepared the food, each team member must eat a serving of each dish to receive their next clue.

That clue tells teams to “Find the spot in Kuala Lumpur where freedom stands tall and bright.” The clue is referring to Merdeka (or Independence) Square and the tallest flagpole in the world.

This clue reveals the first Road Block! Who won’t get stuck in the middle?

For this Road Block, teams will make their way to the iconic Petronas Towers and head up to the Skybridge connecting the twin towers.

Teams will get harnessed before stepping out and under the Skybridge (!) to perform a Tyrolean traverse to reach the clues hanging under the middle of the walkway. Once they have grabbed a clue and returned to the open window, teams can continue Racing.

There are two stations for this Road Block on each side of the bridge. And each station will have separate lines. Teams are free to change lines at any time.

After the Road Block, teams will open the clue to find… ANOTHER Road Block! Who’s confident they won’t mix it up?

The team member who did not perform the first Road Block MUST perform this one.

First, they must travel on foot to the Skybar at Traders Hotel.

And for this Road Block, teams must stack seven cocktail glasses into a pyramid and then use a stack of mixing glasses to pour different Race colored cocktails into each glass simultaneously in a way in which none of the colors mixed. Once successful, teams will be given the next clue.

And that clue points teams to Istana Budaya. Malaysia’s national theater is the first Pit Stop of the Race!

The first team to check-in here will win P200,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+ who has provided unwavering support for The Amazing Race Philippines DryedMangoez Edition for 11 seasons!

The last team to check-in here WILL be eliminated.

“Director’s” Commentary

And we’re back! Hope you can read the season intro post before starting this season. =D

I’ve always thought TAR24 (aka the Season That Must Not Be Named) should have been called “Redemption” instead of “All-Stars” since it basically was a bunch of teams who had unfinished business. Most of the teams were definitely not All-Stars.

But the concept of a “Redemption” season for TAR has been very interesting to me. Survivor has played with the concept of redemption, so a TAR season of teams looking for redemption makes lots of sense.

With the last returning Racers season being All-Stars in season 6, season 12 is the perfect time for another one. But a Redemption season this time.

I thought it’d be interesting to have a gimmick-free season. That is, no U-Turns and Fast Forwards and all of that. None of the free passes and none of the special powers that hinder other teams. Being a redemption season, all teams must earn their spot. No freebies and no outright chances to sabotage other teams. This concept might be good for an All-Stars season too, to find out who’s really the best of the best.

We start the Leg in Makati, mainly for that Intersection task on the rooftop. The ascender task coupled with the Intersection should provide some nice drama right off the bat. Especially since some of these teams possibly know each other already or have some history. It also ups the tension right at the start of the Race.

The task itself should be interesting. It looks interesting to me on paper, but I don’t know if it would look just as great and fun once executed. At the very least, there’s a clever task somewhere here.

Oh, and that Starting Line photo is of the currently under construction (?) Ayala Triangle Gardens North development. It’s supposed to be completed in the next few years. But maybe by then, TV5 will have risen out of the ashes and have another TARPH season up and running. Hehe.

Kuala Lumpur is a good city to start the Race. (It’s also an easy connection to the next Legs ;))

Since teams will be arriving at night, I decided to just make it a full-on night Leg. So of course, how about a Detour at a night market. Both Detours are very typical tasks. But it should be nice to get them in the busy local scene early. The durians may be physical as well. And the street food would likely include something teams may think is gross.

The Merdeka Square riddle gets teams’ brains going and also allowing for more local interaction at the market.

But the highlight of this episode should be the highly improbable and likely incredibly dangerous and absolutely frightening Tyrolean traverse under the Petronas Towers Skybridge. This could be an Emmy-winning task right here. Right? lol

First of all, it might seem completely unrealistic. But when TAR China 3 can do some unexpected tasks that would seem impossible originally, then why can’t TARPH do it too? Of course hundreds of safety measures will be applied here. We don’t want teams to die. Just give the impression of danger, of course. lol

But can you imagine this task? So high up in the sky and all capture on beautiful 4K drone video? At night?! Beautiful, Emmy-winning stuff I say.

Plus, the two separate lines may add some nice drama as well. A team may get in the line where the person doing the Road Block is slow. So teams in the other line may finish ahead of them, etc. Good stuff.

I’m not sure, however, having two climbing/harnessed tasks in one Leg. It might be either/or, realistically.

And to cap this Leg off, how about another recycled task from a season I hate sooooo much. (Seriously, I think I’ve recycled more TAR24 tasks than any other season lol I have no idea why. Maybe just because early on, I limited my task design to things I’d reasonably see the real TARPH actually do. And TAR24’s tasks are simple. But now, it’s just a free-for-all, to be honest lol Nothing’s impossible!)

The skybar task is a nice contrast to the night market Detour. And another logical night task as well.

Overall, this is a very full first Leg. And one that should definitely challenge these veteran teams.

15 thoughts on “The Amazing Race Philippines: Redemption (DryedMangoez Edition 12) – Leg 1 – Malaysia

Share your thoughts!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top